Texas rice farms won't receive water for the first time

Updated 10:50 pm, Friday, March 2, 2012

A Central Texas river authority will withhold water from rice farmers for the first time because of insufficient supply in the Highland Lakes, two large reservoirs near Austin.

The Lower Colorado River Authority declared Friday that the combined storage of the lakes fell just short of the required 850,000 acre-feet of water before a midnight deadline. As a result, most rice growers in Colorado, Wharton and Matagorda counties will not receive irrigated water for their crops this year.

The decision may lead to the smallest planted acreage in decades for the main rice-growing region in Texas. Farmers in the three counties typically produce 5 percent of the U.S. rice crop.

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Although farmers had braced for the news, which was the product of a drought-related emergency order in effect since December, they remained hopeful until the end. A wet start to the year raised the combined levels of the Highland Lakes to within 3,000 acre-feet of the marker by the deadline.

"Most producers had adjusted accordingly," said Ronald Gertson, a Wharton County rice farmer. "That adjustment, unfortunately, had to do with not producing this year."

Becky Motal, the LCRA's general manager, said the decision to cut off the farmers "was made with the best interest of the entire basin in mind. This current drought is one of the most severe on record, and the responses to the drought need to be on the same level."

The LCRA, which manages the Colorado from above Austin to Matagorda Bay, provides water for more than 1 million people, as well as industry, recreation-related businesses, commercial fisheries and farmers. Lakes Buchanan and Travis, the two main reservoirs for the river authority, were at 42 percent capacity Friday after the driest year in the state's history.

Largest users

Rice growers are the largest water users in the Colorado River basin. Their supply, however, is interruptible during dry times, unlike the shares for cities and industry, which pay significantly more per acre-foot than agricultural irrigators.

The emergency order, which resulted from negotiations involving the growers and other stakeholders, called for LCRA to release 125,000 acre-feet to rice farmers if the lake levels reached the trigger point. The amount represented one-third of the water the river authority provided last year.

The LCRA still will release up to 20,000 acre-feet for irrigation under a contract with Colorado County farmers. One acre-foot, equal to 326,000 gallons, is enough to serve two to three typical Texas families for a year.

Others relieved

Those who live and work along the Highland Lakes expressed relief that almost no water will be sent to downstream farmers because of the already low levels.

"If they irrigated with the lake level where it is today, I would be out of business," said Doug Powell, general manager of Emerald Point Marina on Lake Travis.

Powell said the low lake level is not the only reason businesses are suffering, but it is significant. Many boat owners are leaving for fuller lakes, while marina operators face extra costs for extending docks into deeper water, he said.

The rice farmers, meanwhile, are hopeful that they will stay afloat with money from crop insurance. Even then, the potential loss of more than 60,000 acres for the staple grain will ripple through the economy of the three rice-growing counties, said Larry Falconer, an agricultural economist at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi.

Rice production and related businesses, such as seeding and milling companies, contribute about $460 million a year to the local economy, he said. He predicted the area this year will see the fewest acres planted for the water-intensive crop since the 1920s.

Gertson, whose farm is about 60 miles southwest of Houston, said he will use well water to irrigate up to 1,200 of the 3,000 acres he usually plants for rice. The rest will go idle, he said.

The fifth-generation farmer also is looking at ways to conserve water. As others watched lake levels in the hours before the deadline, Gertson installed an underground pipeline, aimed at preventing the loss of water in transport. Water is moved to the fields by canal.

Even with such water-saving adjustments, Gertson said farmers may not be able to withstand a second year without rainfall or help from the river authority.

"While we do not like what is going on, we recognize that it is the product of an intense drought of the like we have never seen," Gertson said. "We are hoping this is something we never see again."